Sports (Commonwealth Union) In a much-anticipated turnout, record-holding long jumper Jazmin Sawyer made her return to the sports scene after taking a 20-month-long break following an injury that ruptured the Achilles heel on her take-off leg. Despite having gone through a successful surgery, the long jumper was unable to rebound from her recovery period and resume training in time for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, taking her out of the list of athletes set to compete. The injury came just months after her win in the 2023 European Indoor title, setting an indoor record of 7.00 metres in the UK, an event that marked her greatest victory to date.
The 31-year-old athlete made her comeback at the Loughborough International Athletics meeting, placing second to Molly Palmer with a jump of 6.53 metres. Also working up from her 2025 personal best, she leapt an impressive 6.66 in Weinheim, Germany, this Saturday in a stunning display of her sharp abilities and the commitment she has maintained to her excellence in the craft during her hiatus.
Despite still having to reach a jump of 6.86 metres in order to qualify for the 2025 World Olympic Games being held in Tokyo this September, she still remains positive and hopeful of building up her rankings. Being unable to compete in the last year, Sawyers was unable to maintain her position in the European Indoor Title held in Apeldoorn in March and, later on, the World Indoors held in Nanjing.
Jazmine Sawyers has not only established herself as a long jumper in the Summer Olympics but has also competed in its winter counterpart, taking up bobsleighing—proof of her versatility in sports performance.
Starting off athletics at the age of nine, Sawyers initially competed in heptathlon. Being introduced to the British Bobsleigh and Skeleton Association, which was recruiting for the Winter YOG after moving to Somerset during her childhood, Sawyers took part in the games in Innsbruck, where she won a silver medal.
Upon returning to the track after the Winter Games, she gravitated towards the long jump—a sport that holds quite a few similarities with bobsleighing—where she won a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships in 2012 before going on to compete in the Junior European Championships, Commonwealth Games 2014, and U23 European Championships.
Sawyer demonstrated her extreme dedication to developing her abilities throughout the years as she competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, finishing in 8th place in the final round with a distance of 6.80 meters. She also jumped at the World Championships held in Oregon in 2022, placing 9th with a distance of 6.62 metres. However, Sawyers swiped the bronze medal that same year with a jump of 6.80 metres in the last round of the Munich European Championships.
Sawyer not only pursues her sports career but also appears as a contestant on Voice UK. Entering the blind auditions in 2017, she secured a spot in the singing competition, mentoring under the judge’s will.i.am. However, after losing out on the sing-off rounds, she admitted to the judges that her priority remains her career in athletics.
She was disappointed to miss the 2024 World Olympic Games in Paris because of her injury. Her passion for the game did not suffer any blows as she took up the role of a BBC commentator for the games.
Having built up an impressive resume of achievements in her name, Jazmine Sawyer’s return to the sports track marks the beginning of an exciting season leading up to this year’s World Olympic Games, where she hopes to make the list of athletes competing and represent Team Great Britain.
